Kukla's Korner Hockey

With an arbitration date set for Aug. 2, there’s still time for the Nashville Predators and Shea Weber to come to contract terms. It just doesn’t seem like it will be this week.

“We’ve had long talks; we seem to be coming to a bit of a stalemate. We still have time to work before the system kicks in,” Weber’s agent, Jarrett Bousquet said. “Shea would like to be a Predator. He enjoys playing there with a team that’s on the cusp of doing something great.”

The Predators filed for arbitration with Weber in mid-June in order to give themselves more time to negotiate a deal with their captain. Should the Predators and Weber go to arbitration, he would decide whether an arbitrator would award him a one- or two-year deal. At the conclusion of such a deal, Weber would be an unrestricted free agent.

On Nashville’s exit day, Weber said that he wanted to remain a Predator, and publicly, that has not changed.

“(A deal) is going to get done,” Weber said in May before he departed Nashville for the summer.